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Thursday, November 1, 2007

Canadian Book Review Annual featured “Land and the Ruling Class in Hong Kong” as Editor’s Choice: Scholarly for the months of September and October 2007. Canadian Book Review Annual is an annual publication that provides the most comprehensive collection of authoritative reviews of English-language trade, scholarly and reference books published in Canada each year. Website:http://home.interlog.com/~cbra/index.html

"Oligopoly pays." That’s the chief lesson emerging from Alice Poon’s excellent survey of Hong Kong’s real estate and infrastructure economies. Although Hong Kong is often characterized as one of the world’s freest economies, it is in fact controlled by a handful of wealthy individuals and companies who stifle—rather than encourage—competition.

Poon dissects the sinews of Hong Kong "big money" and isolates its key components, those being legislative and legal sway over land and competitive policies. Hong Kong’s biggest fortunes owe their growth and security to dominance over a wide spectrum of businesses ranging from transport, public utilities, supermarkets, and food distribution to, most importantly, land development. Huge amounts of real estate are developed by a handful of large companies who control all aspects of supply, construction, and property management. Indeed, the usual hallmarks of classically defined competitive markets are nearly absent; instead, Hong Kong’s market structure suffers from steep barriers to entry and government policies that serve to bolster the market positions of a half dozen huge conglomerates.

The situation of near-anarchy for Hong Kong’s corporate heavyweights may make for impressive annual reports but does little to relieve Hong Kong’s mounting social and economic tensions. Poon carefully details how government "of the rich, by the rich, for the rich" in Hong Kong has damaged civil norms and deprived its population of economic security and well-being. Not surprisingly, articulate protest groups have lodged forceful criticism of "business as usual" and gained widespread support, proving that discontent is deep-seated and justified.

Poon’s concise, well-argued analysis is one of the few available English-language sources on Hong Kong’s predicament. While Hong Kong’s once-vigorous and argumentative press has lost its teeth following the takeover, new outlets such as blogs have assumed huge importance as a barricade for free expression and democratic principles. With Shanghai rapidly eclipsing Hong Kong as the banking and finance powerhouse for China’s breakneck growth, there’s a chance that competition may in fact re-emerge and make for the kind of "popular" entrepreneurship long absent in Hong Kong.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

ADMINISTRATION NOTE: This blogger has accepted an invitation from Asia Sentinel, an online magazine, to move this blog to their website. Their technical people are in the process of finalizing some details and the move will be completed shortly.

For a preview of the new home for this blog, please go to Asia Sentinel's website and look under "Interactive Content" for my blog posts by title:-

Since the publishing of the post “A Tribute to My Primary School”, there have been many responses from our old school mates, some of which I would like to share. I have copied below messages from emails received. Please just note that I’m nowhere near what some of them made me out to be about writing….

From So Chun Hoi:

“After reading the article of Alice, I think many of us are eager to meet our Math teacher Ng Sir at the coming event, but it is heard that he will not join this gathering, may I suggest every one of us to send him an email requesting him to come.”

From Mak Sui Man (Rachel Poon):

“Hi, all, I did not find time to read Poon Wai Han's blog until this wee hours of the day. and, once I read it, I got so excited and could not help responding though I was supposed to get up to rush through a few things.. I was in 6C and of course would not have a clue about 6B. Yet, Alice, you have helped me put into words of pictures the sweet memory I had for my beloved primary school. Thank you so much. I am so proud of having authors in our class of such calibre- you and Kan Mo Han who writes Chinese books.A few things of curiosity:1. I remember having the' fatal' exams all in one day. folks, pl share our memory bank2. I tried to guess the little five, are they Wong Woon Sing (which cannot be wrong), Fung Miu Han, Lee for Lee Tat Yee? , Chiu for Chiu Yat Sing? Have I got them all wrong?3. I wonder whether Ng Sir is reading our mail. If he had, he could not but feel our love and respect for him. (pl. note that I have deliberately deleted his address on this mail). Apparently not a regular user of the internet communication, he has been a very quiet reader if he had been reading. I do wonder how he felt about us. Actually I have been procrastinating about writing him a personal letter to thank him specially for being one of the most important persons to give me the 'magic wand' that cast a life-changing spell in my life.I do have a frantic idea to suggest, for those who shared the gratitude of Alice and me: could we each write a piece of our memory about him to make into a booklet or something and send to him. Wo and Winnie, I am not proposing this as part of the big event as you may feel it would make it look unfair on other teachers [that is why I tried to exclude other teachers on this mail too]. But I am curious of how Ng Sir touched the hearts of different students and do want to find a platform to share mine [and I do not have a blog]Btw, how I wish all these could reach a few of our classmates like Wong Hing!Also, anyone has contact with Chow Po Ching who is the Chinese teacher to 6C and possibly 5b?I really have to go now.”

From Leung Sing Sze (Angela Fu):

“Thanks for sharing a beautiful friendship story of the “Little Five”.Throughout primary school, I thought little boys were put on earth to annoy girls and I couldn’t wait to get to an all girls’ middle school. Was I narrow!!”

From Wong Tai-chu (Sabina Chan):

“I didn't know we have such a famous author (Alice poon) attended our old primary school. I live in Washington state, but I come up to Richmond (Vancouver) every weekend. Unfortunately I can't attend the reunion but would like to see photos. Somehow I really don't remember what year I graduated from EHR. I was graduated from high school in 1967, so I think I must belonged to the class of 1962 then. My triplet brothers, Wong tai-hang, tai-cheung, tai-kwan and my youngest brother, Wong tai-Kai, also graduated from EHR. may be one of you remembered us. I left HK in 1970 to attended the University of Washington and hate to say it, I totally don't remember the old school days and would like someone to fill me in.”

From Rolland Lau Hoo-Kwan:

“Hi Sabrina, Just trying to help filling you in. My name is Lau Hoo Kwan. I have a class photo to 62AM Class 6A but you are not in it. But I DO remember your name the names of your three brothers (They must have been quite famous back then being triplets.)So, I guess you are graduate of 62AM but not Class 6A.Hope this help. Sorry that you couldn't make the reunion.”

Sunday, October 14, 2007

I had just finished tackling the mathematics exam that day, for which “Ng Sir”, as we used to call this caring and dedicated math teacher of ours, had prepared us by tirelessly giving after-school tutoring in the school hall for three evenings a week in the months leading up to the exam.. My mind was a total blank and my pent-up emotions just had to be given a cathartic release. When asked by a classmate how I did, I simply couldn’t react in any way but by letting go a profuse cascade of tears. I was so unnerved by the maths exam that I was not at all confident about my performance. On the bright side though, I felt pretty sure I would get high grades for the English and Chinese exams.

For a lot of primary 6 students who came from poor families like myself, the secondary school entrance examination was one big hurdle to cross in our young lives, as we had to compete for a very limited number of seats in much coveted well-known English secondary schools, whose selection criteria were invariably top grades in all of the three key subjects: Chinese, English and Mathematics. Being able to get into one of those few renowned schools was equivalent to being given a magic wand which could cast a life-changing spell on one’s teenage years and one’s future.

The subject of maths had always been my bete noire. What made matters worse was that the secondary school entrance exam was designed to not only test one’s arithmetic skills, but also one’s brain agility (a student had to answer 100 questions in a one-and-a-half- hour duration) and as such was an extremely stressful test for a primary 6 student. Mind you, those questions all required calculations to be done and were not multiple choice questions.

As much as it was a tension-filled 1-day examination, it was also the most competitive and stimulating task that we had ever attempted. Now in retrospect, it was probably the expected competition that had worked as a motivating force that pushed us to do the best we could and excel in all those three subjects, which helped to lay an essential foundation for our secondary and post-secondary education and to prepare us for our later challenges in life. After all, competition is omnipresent in the adult world, and the earlier you get trained for it, the better.

I have always felt that I owe deeply to my primary school headmaster and teachers not only for the solid primary education I received, but also for their ethical and moral teachings and the way they imparted their values on us by their own examples.

Our headmaster 容宜燕 was a gentle, compassionate and highly respected education professional, whose kind complexion always radiated warmth, intelligence, and paternal love for his students. Every week he would give a short inspiring speech before class to students lined up tidily in the school playground on the second level. The speeches were mostly touching anecdotes from which moral lessons could be drawn. Even the usually most unruly of students would behave and quietly listen from start to finish.

There were a total of 4 classes of primary 6 students (6A, 6B, 6C & 6D) and I was in class 6B. There were five of us in 6B who were Ng Sir’s favorites and we were called the “little five”, as we were of relatively small build and were all seated in the front row. Two of us were girls and the other three boys (girls – Fung & myself; boys - Lee, Wong and Chiu).

Ng Sir was the most hardworking of all teachers and gave generously of his own time to tutor students after school hours. He was well aware how daunting the secondary school entrance exam in maths was and wanted us to be well prepared and well trained in the subject. He made his tutoring sessions open to all four classes and always managed to make what appeared to some of us the most inscrutable subject a little easier to understand.

Our class mistress and English teacher was Mrs. Lee, a bespectacled, care-free, independent and outspoken personality. Considering we didn’t start to learn the 26 English letters until we were in primary 3, Mrs. Lee’s efforts to prepare us for the rigorous secondary school entrance exam were quite a feat, to say the least. Our Chinese teacher was Miss Tsui, who was a demure, soft-spoken and gracious lady, though she never had a problem commanding our total attention in class.

On one fateful day, the results of the secondary school entrance exam were announced. Happily the “little five” all got accepted into reputable English schools. Lee and Wong went on to St. Paul’s Co-ed College, Chiu got accepted by Wah Yan College, Fung went to Ying Wah Girls’ College and I went to St. Paul’s Convent School.

To this day, I am still in contact with Wong, Lee and Chiu (although we haven’t had a get-together for ages). Our greatest regret is that somehow we lost the contact of Fung many years ago.

In those days, the five of us used to play together during recesses on the school rooftop playground (which was reserved for primary 6 students). Our most favorite game was “acrobatic jumping on rubber-band string” which required great physical agility. Fung was the best at this game and always scored highest. During class times, we also used to help each other with our school work. Lee and Fung, who lived near me, used to stop by my home before the three of us trotted off to school together.

Our primary school, which saw us grow from childhood into adolescence, is named Eastern Hospital Road Government Primary School (東院道官立小學）and is located at the junction of Eastern Hospital Road (東院道) and Cotton Path (紅棉徑), near the So Kon Po Recreation Ground (掃桿埔運動場). The school was built atop a small hill in serene surroundings. What I remember most vividly are the flaming red cotton trees that we used to walk by on Cotton Path during spring time.

There was an access path, fenced on one side, that sloped down from the school entrance to the road level. The “little five” had a habit of leaning against the fence at the bottom of the slope, where we would wait for everybody to arrive before marching up together into the school hall, and while waiting, we used to chat while fixing our loving gaze at the school facade. In our heart, the school will always be a monument that we behold with affection and respect, just like when we were small.

PS I've just learned about the 50th anniversary commemorative event of Eastern Hospital Road Government Primary School to be held on December 1, 2007 and the alumni website: http://www.ehrgps.com/. I've also learned from this article that Ronny Tong used to be a student of this school.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

“The ‘Golden Week’ is going to be reformed. I have heard people calling for it before. But now I am seeing a ‘testing the water’ move.

According to news reports, ‘The National Travel Bureau has revealed that the current vacation system will be adjusted. The relevant department’s new vacation proposal is at its final stage of discussion. It only remains to be considered and approved at the National People’s Congress.’

Just like the Golden Week was once bestowed on us without much prior notice, we are now just as unprepared for the new vacation proposal. This new vacation proposal will be considered and approved by the highest level of authority, but before its approval, we are to submit to the “relevant department’s” decision to determine our way of life. As a target of this decision, our only contribution is posing as an object of research.

I am not very clear as to how the Golden Week was created. But as to why it is named as ‘Golden Week’, I do have some idea. Taking a rest from work is a kind of right. However, the Golden Week does not amount to taking a rest. It is merely a ‘Golden Program’. People’s statistical interest in this Golden Program is always how many tourists there are and how much tourist spending there is. The significance of the Golden Week is its ability to ‘drive domestic consumption’.

The Golden Week actually creates a blank in people’s lives and makes people want to fill the blank with something as they are unable to bear it. For Chinese people who seldom get vacation with pay, the seven-day blank definitely would stimulate their desire to travel and thus lead to a hot trend in nation-wide traveling. This is something well within the estimation of the Golden Week designer. A traveling hot trend is an essential motive behind the design of the Golden Week.

Including the Spring Festival Golden Week and the Labor Day Golden Week, there are a total of three Golden Weeks in a year. The National Day 7-day Golden Week actually only allows 3 extra days of vacation with pay after discounting Saturday, Sunday and October 1.

For a society that shows great anxiety over ‘people flow’, as much as the Golden Weeks create economic opportunities, they also to a certain extent create negative stimulants. They are like a heated ball game - they cheer the businesses and the consumers. People flows give businesses the satisfaction of profit-making, while at the same time exerting great pressure on them on the provision of services. Nobody can provide a normal standard of services that can also cater to enormous people flows that happen three times a year. This will inevitably put businesses in a temporary state of emergency during the Golden Weeks, and the quality of services rendered to consumers cannot but be sub-par during such times.

For those who are testing the water with their proposal, this might seem a big psychological gap between a merrily expecting mood and huge disillusionment. In the event of large crowds gathering, such disillusionment exploding into mob rage is not impossible. In every Golden Week there is always a potential danger of unhappy moving crowds exhibiting public rage. Thus Golden Weeks can easily become crisis-prone periods. Discontent on the consumption front can easily be associated with social discontent. Perhaps, this is the last ‘vote’ on approving the vacation system adjustment proposal.

In any case, while raging about the poor service quality during Golden Weeks and the need to protect historic heritage sites, people should also mull over whether a possible solution should be in the form of cutting back on welfare or ensuring it. If the problem is to be solved by cutting back on welfare, then the solution would be to spread holidays of Golden Weeks to other festive days like Mid-Autumn Festival and Tuen Ng Festival. Such a solution may not cut the total number of holidays with pay, but it definitely lessens choices for workers. If the problem is to be solved by ensuring welfare, the solution would be to keep the current Golden Weeks intact, while legalizing vacation with pay. This way, people will be allowed to choose freely when to take their vacation and when to make their travel plans.

Even before a lot of questions have a chance of being debated, there are already talks that ‘discussions are at the final stage’ and ‘only waiting to be considered and approved by the National People’s Congress’. Isn’t this a little too ‘forcing people’s hand’?”

Sunday, October 7, 2007

The Bauhinia Foundation Research Centre, a private think-tank, has just produced a policy submission paper titled “Hong Kong: A Creative Metropolis”. Other than the boring reified rendering of the subject of creativity, the paper amounts to little else. Above all, it is biased towards developing the hardware, giving 10 pages to cover this aspect, while giving short shrift to the far more paramount issue of education reform, which is given 2 pages of coverage. The worst thing is: it sounds as though it can force-feed creativity into Hong Kong people overnight.

Here are some lines that pretty much describe how the think-tank proposes to go about “making” Hong Kong a “creative metropolis”:-

“As a parallel model of urban planning, this paper proposes a cultural-led approach to address the issues arising from urban development. In essence, the approach promotes multi-tiered urban spatial development; it embraces diversity and enhances spatial quality of the city.”

A culture-led approach to urban development?? The two words “culture-led” and “development” sound so incongruous that they can only become oxymoronic when placed near each other. When I think of culture, I think of something artistic and beautiful like a painting, a piece of literature or classical music. When my mind switches to the word “development”, I can visualize ugly cookie-cutter style apartment buildings, philistine investors and greedy developers.

“And the new economic policy frameworks should be set to harness broad-based creativity for service innovation not only in the bounded domain of the creative industries but also the service economy in general.”

Is creativity something that can be “harnessed” through policy frameworks setting? I wonder what the think-tank had in mind when it used the word “creativity”.

“In making Hong Kong a creative metropolis, the government should take on a more proactive role in defining a creative economic policy and cultivating a creative habitat.”

Here the government is asked to play God. Without a culturally sensitive, inherently innovative and imaginative society (albeit there are some exceptions), thanks to a largely materialistic citizenry and an uninspiring system of education that does not encourage creative thinking or artistic appreciation, all talks about creative this and creative that are meaningless. While it takes time, maybe generations, to nurture such a society, one prerequisite is for government to apply a hands-off approach in this particular area and allow absolute space and freedom for creative ideas to flourish and grow among the citizens. Another sine qua non is a thorough reform of the educational system.

In short, the policy submission paper is trying to suggest that government should take the initiative to build a self-proclaimed culturally inclined hardware (in terms of development) based on some preconceived notion of creativity. Other than an attempt to take economic planning to a level even more extreme than our socialist motherland, the paper hardly offers any creative surprises.

“On March 16 the National People’s Congress passed the draft Property Bill, which will become law as of tomorrow (October 1). We will use “compulsory eviction” as a moot point to describe a once cruel urban landscape in the absence of such a law, as well as reveal the effect of private property right being forcibly distorted, and in some cases even barbarically erased. Now, with the Property Law finally in place, the nation is hopeful that it will serve not only to heal the socio-psychological wounds once inflicted by compulsory eviction, but also to uphold justice and confirm the rule of private property law.

As an important pillar of China’s civil law, there is a significant meaning for the Property Law to take effect on National Day. The eight readings of the draft bill over a span of 13 years are sufficient proof of the necessity and urgency for such a law. The fact is, the slowness and difficulties attending the birth of the law are directly proportionate to the multi-layers of ideals that it embodies. As revealed in many in-depth news reports, destinies of individuals and families have often been subverted by compulsory eviction, while administrative blunders have exacerbated social injustice as well as created a potential cause for social instability. Although one cannot expect the Property Law to be a panacea for all ills, it nevertheless is a promise to recognize private property right as such. At least it is a fundamental means to deter or prevent the plundering of private property, although it is not the only means.

Of course, to thoroughly cure compulsory eviction is not the only content of the Property Law. However, now playing out all over China are scenes after scenes of brutal eviction, which will be good testing grounds for the new Property Law in terms of its tenacity and surviving ability in real life situations. Perhaps it is hard to make any judgment, as the nation presently is going through a climax in compulsory evicting acts. However, the vicious genes bred by compulsory eviction will not disappear with the birth of the Property Law. Rather, they will mutate into a new reactionary power in the new battle ground. For this reason, the post-Property Law era will not be a peaceful world, rather, as in the past, the Law needs to be fought for. In other words, the extent to which the Law can be put into practice depends on its confidence and ability in harnessing state authority, as well as on its power to restrain vested interest groups’ abuse of private property right. It is true that the Property Law has offered an opportunity to wrest private property right out of state possession. However, the budding chance of liberation is held in the hands of the state and not the citizens.

One thing that warrants caution is: before the Property Law came into being, the protection of private property was well documented in the Constitution as well as in Land Management Law, but in practice, the spirit of property right under the Constitution and the Rules of Land Management have always been widely evaded. The government’s evicting actions are based on the Urban Housing Evicting Regulations issued by the State Council, and the provinces have established their own relevant procedural rules based on those regulations. Together, they have reinforced government’s authority in the system of private property right and their say is the final say. The individual’s right to negotiate his own property right is precarious at best and he faces the danger of being subjugated at any time. Although with the inception of the Property Law, the Land Management Law and Eviction Regulations will have to be amended to align with the Property Law, as long as the habitual unspoken rules of the game between governments and developers are allowed to continue to exist, the administration’s monopolizing control over private property right will not have been eliminated. Whether the efforts by victims of eviction to use the Property Law to fight that control will be successful is anyone’s guess.

Apart from the blatant challenge of the Property Law coming from government and vested interest groups, their threat to the Law, as in times prior to its enactment, consists of three principles: habitual occupation, transfer based on agreement and fulfilling a promise. In the example of urban eviction, although a citizen has the right to take his case to court, the court can only determine whether government’s documents are adequate, it cannot invalidate the act of eviction itself. The fact that a citizen cannot rely on civil law for redress means that an individual is unable to shatter government’s imposing control over private property. According to the latest civil law interpretation, as long as the procedures of compulsory eviction are legal, objection by the victim is deemed unimportant. Once the government applies to court to carry out compulsory eviction, the court is empowered to first take the plaintiff into custody. So much for private property right! What it all comes down to is a fight against the evils of a system of unspoken rules. If the Property Law is to be properly implemented, there is a need to break free from that system.

In any event, the Property Law represents a certain kind of hope for the citizens: on the premise of private property being made independent, the individual can hope to cease being a resource that can be manipulated by government. Yet, the new law is supposed to strike down such an absurd concept: it is only when the individual has obtained his private property right that he can deter government from abusing its power. The unfortunate thing is, whether he can “obtain” such right is dependent on the power- wielding authorities. Therefore, a law-abiding government is the only guarantee that can guard the spirit of the law from being distorted, mutated or displaced. The Property Law has provided a good reference for a role model government. A progressive local government should not be apathetic to such a call for improvement.”

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Like a lot of other teenagers from my generation who came from financially struggling families, my very first income-generating stint right after graduating from secondary school was tutoring. In those days of economic stringency, when newer handed-down clothes were already luxury items for me, a seventeen-year-old, the burden often fell squarely on the first-born child of cash-strapped families to find ways of contributing to the family coffer soonest possible, especially when the supposed breadwinner had never assumed the responsibility of feeding his offspring.

Anyway, even if one’s wish to find a tutoring job were urgent, whether one could quickly land an offer depended a lot on whether one had the right relations. I was fortunate to have a rich aunt (my father’s sister) who befriended a lot of rich tai-tais through mahjong playing, one of whom, through my aunt’s introduction, engaged me to tutor her nine-year old daughter for a monthly fee of HK$100. My mother used my first month’s income (I handed every cent of my income to my mum) to buy me my first ever new winter overcoat at the Dai Yuan department store (大元百貨公司) in Causeway Bay (situated at approximately where the Sogo department store now stands). It was a greenish-brown checkered knee-length woolen coat with fake-fur lining, bronze buckles and a hood and it was British made. I kept it for a long time.

Let’s turn back to my tutoring job. There was one particular episode that has distinctly stuck in my mind. One day when I showed up as usual at 3:00 pm at Mrs. C’s (my employer) residence, which was located at Fung Fai Terrace, Happy Valley (now redeveloped into Celeste Court), I discovered that the household had a TV taboo, which was whenever it showed any movie starring a certain Hong Kong actress (I’m not disclosing the name for obvious reasons), the TV set had to be turned off at once. As I entered the luxury apartment, I heard Mrs. C shout her command grouchily to the servant who was dusting the sofas, “Turn off the TV right now! Who turned it on?” Although I thought it strange at the time, wondering nonetheless what on earth could have made Mrs. C so mad, the matter slipped my mind until towards the end of my assignment, when I learned about the background story from my aunt.

It turned out that Mr. C, who was a very successful businessman, had been keeping the actress as his mistress in a separate residence with his wife’s knowledge. The actress was very famous too and had played the leading lady role in numerous Cantonese movies, opposite actors like 張英, 胡楓. It goes without saying that she was much younger and prettier than Mrs. C. In those days, rich men keeping concubines and mistresses was almost seen as a symbol of status in a male dominant society. There was little choice for the poor wives: they either had to play deaf and dumb or face the harsh reality of divorce, which, other than bringing on ignominy and disgrace, would mean the end of economic security and possibly being alienated from their own children. It was really not a choice for women who had practically no earning capacity. While I sympathized with Mrs. C, it also dawned on me that education of the self, through conventional or unconventional channels, is the sine qua non for females to gain their economic independence.

I guess Hong Kong women are lucky to have become liberated, having come a long way from those dark days of male chauvinism. However, this brings to mind the still lurid situation of many women in Southeast Asia, especially in the Philippines. Last night I happened to be watching a documentary made by CBC on the subject of prostitution in the Philippines, which made me sick to the stomach. Girls as young as twelve to fourteen are forced into prostitution by abject poverty. They are held in captivity in dirty cubicles and are made to “service” as many as fifteen customers a day. There is just no hope for them to be saved from the inhumane scourge of a wicked society that is bent on decimating females. They often die at a young age from AIDS or other diseases. Can such a society be called civilized, or even close?

Thursday, September 27, 2007

I’ve been trying to refrain from commenting on Hong Kong’s political scene, not least because I have been since an early age under the influence of my French teacher who believed that “politics is the opium of the mind”. Of course, another reason is that I know too little about, let alone understand, Hong Kong politics to be qualified to write anything about it.

It just strikes me as odd that Hong Kong seems to have an extraordinary cult of worshipping senior administrators, or at least admiring their capability almost to the point of adoration. This fact is borne out by Donald Tsang constantly getting high popularity ratings soon after his “election” (although they have been steadily dropping ever since).

Now once again, Hong Kong people are getting all excited about the imminent face-off between two former senior civil servants, Anson Chan and Regina Ip, in the contest for the legislative council seat left vacant by Ma Lik.

My question is: why do people fuss over two former administrators? No matter which of the two ultimately wins, neither one is going to change things for Hong Kong people. Haven’t Hong Kongers had enough of the stuffiness, inherent snobbishness, the lack of imagination, inside-the-box thinking and overall inflexible, follow-orders working style of these typical obedient subordinates of the former British masters, who used to care more about their own public office career with all the attendant perks than about the real-life hardships of the ordinary people on the streets? Can they really be expected to change their mindset overnight, notwithstanding their attempts to shake off their old aloof, patronizing image by taking to the streets and making apologetic speeches? They may have administrative experience on their side, but leadership qualities, a sense of right and wrong, compassion and empathy are far more important attributes for a truly effective politician.

Without the presence of the British as driving instructors, I have strong doubts about senior civil servants in Hong Kong being naturally better choices as politicians than any reasonably well-educated, well-intentioned professionals (especially the self-made ones) from the private sector, as appears to be the popular belief. At least with the latter, there might be a chance for a breath of fresh air in the present stale political climate.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Perhaps it’s no surprise that in the face of long-time political oppression and abject poverty, the Burmese people’s deep-seated anger has finally erupted in the form of street protests led by the monks. Everything happens for a reason. In Myanmar (current name for Burma), decades of gross social and economic inequalities under the rule of a repressive and corrupt military government are very near, if they have not already reached, a tipping point.

The only twist is that, according to Amy Chua’s “World on Fire”, since so-called market-oriented policies were introduced in 1989, reversing three decades of socialist central planning, ethnic Chinese who make up about 5 percent of Myanmar’s population, in collusion with the military generals, have been the impetus in worsening the society’s imbalances.

Here are some excerpts from the book that may help us understand better the background situation and underlying sentiments there:-

“Free markets are supposed to lift all boats, and indeed often do. But this is distinctly not the perception of Burma’s roughly 30 million ethnic Burman majority. In their view, markets and economic liberalization have led to the domination and looting of their country by a relative handful of ‘outsiders’, chiefly ethnic Chinese, in symbiotic alliance with SLORC (State Law and Order Restoration Council)……..”

“Meanwhile, just below the surface, anti-Chinese hostility seethes among the Burman majority. As hatred of SLORC intensifies, hatred for the Chinese intensifies as well, not without justification: Crony capitalistic relationships between SLORC generals and Chinese entrepreneurs, not to mention arms sales from China, have been critical in propping up Burma’s reviled ruling junta. But in the current reign of fear, there is no avenue for venting resentment, whether against SLORC, the rich Chinese, or the market-oriented policies that have allowed both of these groups to make hundreds of millions while indigenous Burmans become an increasingly subjugated underclass in their own country……”

“It is an understatement to say that, in terms of financial and human capital, the vast majority of indigenous Burmans, roughly 69 percent of the population, cannot compete with the country’s 5 percent Chinese minority. Three-quarters of the Burmans live in extreme rural poverty, typically engaging in paddy production or subsistence farming…….”

“….as ethnic Chinese developers in the nineties snapped up all the prime real estate in Mandalay – making fast fortunes as property values doubled and tripled in the chaotic new markets – indigenous Burmese Mandalayans were pushed further and further away from their native homes. (In 1990, SLORC had already forcibly relocated dissidents and Mandalayan monks.)………”

“Today, ethnic Chinese Burmese own nearly all of Mandalay’s shops, hotels, restaurants, and prime commercial and residential real estate. The same is more or less true in Rangoon……”

Let’s just keep our fingers crossed that the monks’ peaceful marches will not lead to violent clamp down by the rulers, yet again. It might be time for the Chinese living in Myanmar to do some soul-searching and hopefully such incidents might help them realize that happiness built upon others’ pain cannot last long.

Monday, September 24, 2007

According to this Newsweek article, the warnings are all written on the wall in respect of China’s unsustainable asset bubble, with imbalances even worse than those experienced in pre-bust Japan in the 1980s. It also gives a succinct analysis of how a probable US meltdown caused by the current credit crunch could trigger the inevitable implosion of China’s bubble, which has been formed out of two decades of over-reliance on fixed asset investments and export growth and further compounded by excessive speculation in the stock and real estate markets.

In respect of the stock market bubble, this article by David Webb is a must-read.

In their zeal to make impeccable preparations for the Olympic coming-out party, would the Chinese top officials have spare time to read the writing on the wall?

Sunday, September 23, 2007

If Hong Kong people were asked what aspect of English culture had affected their personal lives most from the colonial days, I guess varied answers would pop up, depending on their own experiences. My own answer would be, apart from the English language which I love, the uniquely English habit to enjoy afternoon tea, which I had learned at a very tender age, although not directly from the English but from a distant uncle (a second cousin of my father’s) and aunt.

When I was a small kid, my mother used to take me and my two siblings to family gatherings on some weekends at the home of this uncle and aunt who lived in a spacious flat on Robinson Road with their adopted teenage son and a servant. The usual program would be: the grown-ups would play mahjong in the living room while the kids would watch self-made mock movies created by our cousin in a bedroom.

This uncle had been educated in England and worked as a lawyer in a well-known law firm in Central. He liked to wear the Chinese-style “cheong-sam” when he went to the office. As he had a lanky physique, it worked perfectly for him. When he was home though, he would opt for the more comfortable Chinese-style front-buttoned top and pants. His wife, my aunt, liked to wear “cheong-sam” even at home and was always softspoken and gracious. The furniture in their home was mostly made of red wood, and the walls were decorated with Chinese calligraphy and paintings.

My younger sister and brother and I always loved such gatherings, as we had the chance to play with our cousin who was obsessed with making mock movies and who never failed to surprise us with his new creations. Another reason was that this was the only household we knew then who served English-style afternoon tea.

Each time we were there, at four o’clock sharp, Ah Yuk (the servant) would call the kids to the dining room, where the table would be set for tea, complete with an English silver teapot, fine china tea cups and saucers, dessert plates, a jug of milk, a bowl of sugar, a big tin of English assorted biscuits and a plate of egg tarts and cakes. The adults would stop their mahjong playing and join us. While they would be busy chatting away, we, the kids, would raid the tin of biscuits with gusto. When competition became keen over one favorite sort, it would usually be resolved by way of “stone, paper, scissors”.

Those occasional treats for us ceased when I became a teenager. As Hong Kong’s economy was starting to improve, western-style restaurants sprang up everywhere. There was one in Wanchai, on the street (天樂里) that connected Leighton Road to Hennessy Road (on which Central-bound trams from Happy Valley run), that became my favorite in my high school years, although it was only on special occasions that I was taken there to have afternoon tea. It had nice western décor with dark blue carpets and upholstery (I can’t remember the name of the restaurant) and served an afternoon tea set that included English tea and waffles with butter and syrup.

These afternoon tea experiences left an indelible imprint on my memory. Throughout my adult life, nothing delights me more than the simple pleasure of having a nice cup of black tea with milk and sugar and some pastries in a lazy afternoon on weekends and holidays. Even the world-wide craze for Starbucks coffee and their fanciful drinks hasn’t been able to change this afternoon tea habit of mine!

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

ESWN has posted a Chinese article from wenxuecity.com that describes and comments on the contents of a documentary produced by the Japanese NHK television group titled “激流中國 : 富人與農民工” (“China in a Raging Current: The Rich and the Peasants”). The article has provided links to the documentary video clips on Youtube. The documentary is in Japanese with Chinese subtitles, but you wouldn’t need to know either language to understand.

I have translated the article below.

“Documentaries produced by NHK are quite well known internationally. I think the reason is that apart from having unique angles, the films reflect the truth and are objective and fine-tuned. Although using the example of Li Xiaohua who is the richest man in Beijing and who claims to have a net worth of US$2 billion may be a bit extreme, the projection of the peasants’ way of life is however very close to reality – a condition which generally exists in vast expanse of China and is something that I have personally witnessed.

This is a reality that China cannot avoid facing: most of the nation’s resources are controlled in the hands of a small vested interest group, with wealth churning among a number of elitists; the rich have no need to work hard for their wealth while the poor toil exhaustively for miserable returns. The wide gap between rich and poor stretches further apart by the day.

I used to be under the impression that our country’s decision makers were really focused on rectifying this social impasse, mighty as they are on their high pedestal declaring their ambition to create a harmonious China. But unfortunately in the documentary I saw several powerful big shots whose faces are frequently seen on television appear at Li’s 56-year birthday bash, chatting and joking with the affluent business moguls. The party is just a microcosm of a reality: that power and money are happily married. Those in power provide information and money-making opportunities for the rich, and may even change the rules of the game in their favor. Those with wealth provide the powerful with money, pleasure and an easy life.

A young man featured in the film becomes a wealthy big shot relying on “guanxi” built up by his father who is an incumbent senior government official. The rich young man has bought several apartments in Tianjin for investment purpose. It seems that NHK has stumbled on a common trait for China’s rich people. What Deng referred to as “common wealth” has taken on another meaning: it is the common wealth of the powerful and the rich.

When the film turns to the poor peasants and their families, I feel that I have fallen from a surreal world of prosperity into an almost tangible world of reality. What I see in the film are many different versions of my personal experience in my home village. In a country where development splits two-ways into urban and village, the villages are using their depression to shoulder the prosperity of the cities and the peasants are using their hardships to prop up the urbanites’ good fortune. The social security system only covers the city population, but not the village peasants. While the city people enjoy employment, medical and retirement social benefits, the peasants have no choice but to leave their families behind to find work in cities in order to earn some cash to pay for their children’s education and their elders’ medical bills. But the ever inflating living costs are racing the peasants’ ability to earn in a marathon. So when they fall ill, they have to endure it; when they get hungry and cold, they have to bear with it. There can be no stopping for breath, not even one moment of rest is possible!

Children of peasants are often left behind in the villages by their parents who have gone to the cities to work. They miss their parents badly but can do nothing except to bear them in their hearts. In writing an essay titled “My Dream”, they show that their single wish is to be able to go to university, work in cities and take their parents to the cities to live.

Society has never been fair. It is impossible to have absolute fairness. Yet under the present unbridgeable wealth gap, the least those in power can do is to make it possible for the poor’s basic subsistence needs to be satisfied. But the reality is: the poor are not just poor, they actually cannot see any certain path leading them out of their fateful destitution. Such social anomaly where the poor can only get poorer and wealth continues to flow within the elite’s confines, it is not a matter of laboring pain of reform but is something that can only be called tragic.”

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

"A more powerful tsunami is about to descend on the United States where many of the banks have been engaged in the same practices and are using the same business model as Northern Rock. Investors are no longer buying CDOs, MBSs, or anything else related to real estate. No one wants them, whether they’re subprime or not. That means that US banks will soon undergo the same type of economic gale that is battering the U.K right now. The only difference is that the U.S. economy is already listing from the downturn in housing and an increasingly jittery stock market. That’s why Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson rushed off to England yesterday to see if he could figure out a way to keep the contagion from spreading."

It must be pretty serious business if the U.K. bank run could incite the U.S. Treasury Secretary to take the trip there!

Monday, September 17, 2007

Two news reports best illustrate the state of dichotomy Hong Kong is now in. On the one hand, loaded developers bid feverishly over a piece of land to an astronomically high price (by world standards), while on the other, one in five Hong Kong people (20 percent of the total population) are trapped in the lowest echelon of society, where a 2-person household has to struggle with a miserable HK$7,000 per month income.

It is not infrequent that we hear government officials beam on how euphoric Hong Kong’s economy has been since the dismal days of SARS in 2003, backed up by healthy statistics. Perhaps they have been telling the truth, at least partially. The big question is: where has the new found wealth gone and how has it been distributed?

Less than a week ago, we had this announcement from Hong Kong’s largest developer, Sun Hung Kai Properties: the company has raked in a net profit of HK$21.23 billion for the year ended June 30, 2006 and it plans to fork out a further HK$33 billion for investments in the Mainland, where it already committed HK$44 billion in funds.

The net profit figure, compared with the year 2002 when it recorded a HK$8.52 billion profit, reflects a growth over four years of 1.49 times. The disheartening news is that the company has been channeling most of its profits into the Mainland in the last few years, and thus has not even been helpful in creating more employment in the local construction industry, which has been contracting yearly as a GDP contributor since 2001. Sun Hung Kai Properties is already among the latecomers who have jumped on the China property bandwagon. Others before it include Cheung Kong (Holdings), Henderson Land and New World Development, who have all secured huge land banks in the Mainland, using their Hong Kong earned profits.

So, who has been responsible for stimulating growth in the local economy? A quick look at the export data would provide the answer. The total exports in the post-SARS years showed year-on-year growth as follows: 2004: +15.9 percent; 2005: +11.4 percent; 2006: +9.4 percent. And import and export trade contributed to more than 20 percent of Hong Kong’s GDP in each of 2003, 2004 and 2005. If not for the hard-working efforts of the small import/export traders and enterprises, Hong Kong’s economy would probably not been as buoyant. Of course, its buoyancy also undeniably owes greatly to the booming finance sector, thanks to China dishing out IPOs to the SAR. But those lucky enough to be employed in this sector are hardly more than just a handful, and they, together with senior executives of the oligopoly of conglomerates and senior civil servants, typically take most of the cream off the income pie.

Thus we have a situation where rent-seeking developers have in recent years created immense wealth, just as in the past decades, but have redirected the newly found riches (partly from cash-rich Mainlanders who buy properties in Hong Kong) into the Mainland for investing purpose, leaving little benefit for Hong Kong’s economy, while the economy has relied on finance services and exports for most of its growth.

Meanwhile, as the export industry, like the red-hot finance industry, is not labor-intensive and thus has not been able to benefit a wider sector of the working population. The retail industry, although also showing strong growth, typically employs only an unskilled (low-paid) but young group in the labor force, despite the rapidly aging population. (It comes as no surprise that those aged between 45 and 65 make up the biggest increase (34%) in the below-poverty line group over the last 5 years.) Besides, many retail businesses have had to struggle with daunting rent increases from their ravenous developer landlords and can hardly afford to be generous employers. Between 2001 and 2006, the real wage index only saw a dismal 0.6 percent growth.

The above may not be the full picture of what’s happening in Hong Kong’s economy, but it might help to provide a glimpse into reality as to why more people are becoming poorer as the economy registers blooming growth, and why the wealth gap keeps stretching.

Looking forward, with a GINI coefficient already at the same levels as in Latin America, there doesn’t appear to be any silver lining…….

Friday, September 14, 2007

Jared Diamond conveyed this well-argued statement in his book “Guns, Germs and Steel”: “History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples’ environment, not because of biological differences among peoples themselves.”

Perhaps it is also true that a person’s mentality and beliefs are shaped by his/her own life experiences, rather than by his/her race or class.

I can still remember how impressed I was when I heard a white Canadian co-worker at a company in Toronto make this rebellious remark: “I’m not paid enough to think – I am only a secretary!” For someone like me who had always been taught that it was natural for female workers to be submissive to bosses or superiors and to do whatever work they demanded, that remark totally changed my outlook on the boss-subordinate relationship.

Female workers at the time (we are talking about three decades ago) were often taken advantage of, in that they were made to do servile work like serving their bosses coffee, running their bosses’ personal errands and sometimes even shouldering executive responsibilities, in addition to handling normal secretarial work, while being only paid a dismal salary. It was normal for highly paid managerial staff to take the whole afternoon off to play golf (presumably with clients) while leaving their secretaries to the mundane task of manning the office. What was even worse was the bosses’ inconsiderate behavior and condescending attitude towards the female staff. It was a time of blatant gender discrimination in an unequal society, in Canada as well as in Hong Kong. (I know things have improved a great deal in corporate Canada since that time, but perhaps to a lesser extent with Hong Kong companies.)

A few weeks after voicing her opinion, that co-worker resigned from the company. On her last day, she heroically stomped into her boss’s room, lashed out at his overbearing and inconsiderate behavior towards her and other junior staff and slammed the door behind her when she came out.

The image of that scene has stuck in my mind ever since and she has remained one of my heroines (another one is Simone de Beauvoir). Her brave action helped to shape my belief that to fight injustice, the first thing one must do is to speak one’s mind against all odds. It was a valuable lesson that my schools had never taught me. In the times of my childhood, meekness was expected of the female gender.

Talking about injustice, there was one social phenomenon in the colonial days that particularly irked me. It was the unspoken rule that local Chinese were required to speak English when spoken to by British people. I felt that this was totally unjust. Why weren’t the British required to speak Cantonese, when they lived and worked in a basically Chinese society?

I debated on the issue with one of my British bosses then. He told me that it was in the Chinese’s own interests to be able to speak and write good English, as English was a commonly used international language. I agreed with him on this point, but I was still not convinced as to why the British didn’t bother to learn the language of the place they resided in. After all, they were the guests and we were the hosts. Shouldn’t they at least have the courtesy of speaking the language that their hosts spoke? I felt so strongly about this issue that I wrote a letter to the editor of the South China Morning Post on this topic, arguing that breaking the language barrier depended as much on the British as on the Chinese. It got published, although I didn’t know if it had any impact or not.

Over the ensuing years, I have tried to stick to my principle of speaking my own mind whenever I detect gross injustice, but not as vigorously as I would have liked, not least because of livelihood realities. Still, I would like to think that I have done my part, as I firmly believe in what Edmund Burke said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” It’s immodest of me to regard myself as good, though….(smiley)

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

It was the crack of dawn on Tuesday, October 20, 1987 in Hong Kong. The U.S. stock market had tanked more than 22 percent on Monday. Inside Financial Secretary Piers Jacobs’ residence the clang of the wailing phone shattered the morning silence. The caller at the other end was Ronald Li, patriarch of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, an amalgam of four previously independent stock exchanges. What happened afterwards is history.

It was only in the previous year that the four independently owned and managed stock exchanges in Hong Kong had been merged into one single entity governed by one set of rules and regulations, in order to project a better image of Hong Kong being a free market-oriented and properly regulated international financial center. In those unruly pre-unification days when insider trading had been the norm rather than the exception, the four exchanges had often been accused of being run as private clubs by self-serving, vested interest groups, at the expense of small investors on the street.

Those four exchanges were: the Hong Kong Stock Exchange which was the colonial legacy, the Far East Exchange which was owned by Ronald Li, cousin of Bank of East Asia chairman David Li, the Kam Ngan Stock Exchange which belonged to gold dealing guru Woo Hon Fai, and the Kowloon Stock Exchange which was run by a commodity trader.

But on that fateful day, the ideals of the unification of the stock exchanges were utterly defeated. The image of Hong Kong as having a free market was ruined as the stock and index futures markets were arbitrarily ordered to close for four days, not so much for the credulous purpose of diffusing the shock to investors from the U.S. fallout as for the self-serving reason of attempting to limit losses on huge shareholding positions of interested parties. Unfortunately, rather than showing an orderly decline as desired, both the stock and index futures markets went into a freefall when the markets reopened on October 26, plunging 33 percent. Massive defaults by futures brokers followed and the futures exchange clearing house collapsed, bringing down with it the futures exchange and Hong Kong’s international reputation.

The irony is the 4-day closure of the markets, rather than helping to mitigate price falls as intended, only served to exacerbate the already jittery nerves of punters and max out the subsequent share dumping and index futures shorting.

Amidst fierce criticisms by international stock and futures brokers of the four-day market-shut-down interventionist move which was deemed obnoxious in a free economy like Hong Kong, culprits (or scapegoats, depending on who’s telling the story) were named and punished. The catastrophe led to the establishment of the watchdog body, the Securities and Futures Commission. The colonial government also appointed Sir Wilfrid Newton, then ex-chairman of the MTRC and an expert on financial crisis management, to start restructuring the futures exchange and its clearing operations.

The major lesson from the 1987 carnage seems to be that equity markets are best left to their own forces provided that appropriate regulatory mechanism is in place. But the HKSAR government has often found it hard to leave stock markets alone, albeit often declaring itself a devout disciple of free market principles.

Still fresh in people’s memory is the government’s 1998 share-buying spree, using HK$118 billion of Hong Kong people’s money without so much as the slightest intention of consulting them first.

Now we’ve been told that the SAR government already owns 5.88 per cent of Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing (HKEx), which makes it the single largest shareholder and a “minority controller” of the public organization, along with five others. It is not known whether the buying act will continue, but the share price of HKEx has already spiked up 17 percent since the announcement last Friday. Besides, according to David Webb, the corporate governance expert, it also owns through the Exchange Fund HK$150 billion worth of Hong Kong equities, or equivalent to 3.2 per cent of the free float of each company in the Hang Seng Index, making it the second largest investor in Hong Kong stocks.

There are talks about the SAR government planning to merge HKEx partially with the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Hence its scrambling to seize control of HKEx is probably because it wants to ram the plan through without any unnecessary struggle.

We have certainly come a long way from the days of insider trading, but with the government getting its hand deeper and deeper into Hong Kong’s stock market, it begs the questions of how free, or how planned, our economy really is, how much of an “insider” the government wants to become and, most importantly, whether HKEx is going to be run more and more like government’s private club with little accountability to the public.

Monday, September 10, 2007

David Webb has written a well-analysed piece on Webb-site.com on the SAR government's hoarding up on Hong Kong equities, the most recent purchase being of shares in Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing (HKEx):-

"Whatever the real reasons for the Government's purchase, it sends a very negative signal to the market as a whole, and increases uncertainty. Until now, the Government had not visibly intervened in the market since 1998. How much of HKEx do they intend to buy, and when? Will they tell us if they have bought or sold more? Are they willing to underpin the share price with further purchases if the stock falls? What other stocks do they intend to buy?

The increasing exposure of the Exchange Fund to HK Equities, now estimated at HK$150bn (before the increase in HKEx) or 3.2% of the free float of each company in the HSI, is also worrying on two levels. First, it puts the Government in a position of conflict of interest in relation to the companies it invests in at the same time as dealing with them, taxing them and regulating them, and second, it also means that in the event of a financial crisis in HK, the Exchange Fund will be piling up investment losses at the same time.

On conflicts of interest, take, for example, the electricity companies with which the Government is negotiating a new scheme of control which may reduce their fat returns, or the property developers with which it negotiates land premiums, or the telecom company it regulates on interconnection tariffs with mobile operators.............

There really is no need to have any equity exposure at all. We often have to call on listed companies to return surplus capital to shareholders rather then punting the stock market. The same applies to the Government: it has surplus funds and should return them to the community in the form of revenue reductions (tax, rates and duties), not invest them in the market. If the Government were a person and money were fat, then this patient is grossly obese............

This ridiculous hoarding of public wealth cannot continue indefinitely. It's time for a complete rethink of the Government's financial management."

Sunday, September 9, 2007

If you think that as the registered owner of a piece of private property you have the right to live in that property for as long as it physically lasts, so long as you are not behind with utilities and rates payments, think again.

Ever since The Land (Compulsory Sale for Redevelopment) Ordinance was enacted in 1998 and came into operation in 1999, developers in Hong Kong have been able to force auction of the entire residential building for redevelopment purpose, provided they have already acquired 90 percent of the units in that building.

As reported in The Standard, the authorities are considering, in view of demands from developers, lowering that forcible sale threshold to 80 percent where the building in question is at least 40 years old.

If they pass this into law, this is what it means. If you are the owner of one of the ten remaining units (in a 50-unit 40-year old building) that have not yet been acquired by the interested developer who already owns the other 40 units, no matter how unwilling you are to sell your unit for whatever reasons, you will have no other option but to surrender. Owners of the other nine remaining units will face the same fate. Under current legislation, the developer needs to have acquired 45 units first before he can apply for compulsory sale of the whole building.

Our private property right is supposed to be protected by law in a society that embraces capitalism like Hong Kong. But I guess, under the circumstances, it depends on whose private property right we are talking about.

Aggrieved flat owners in affected buildings are in fact in a similar situation as those distressed property owners affected by any of the Urban Renewal Authority (URA) redevelopment schemes. The former and the latter are on equal footing in one aspect: both groups don’t have any redress channel. The aggressor in the latter case is the quasi-government body whose motive is arguably public interest, whereas in the former case it is the private developer whose motive is private profit.

According to the Housing, Planning and Lands Bureau’s industry consultation paper dated March 2006, there are over 7,500 private buildings in Hong Kong that are aged 40 years or over (about 20% of the total number of private buildings).

In the present booming property market, developers will no doubt be coveting older buildings in what has traditionally been classified as luxury residential areas. In this respect, some flat owners in say upper Mid-Levels or Ho Man Till Hill, once their building is targeted for acquisition, might find their private property right a little precarious.

Thursday, September 6, 2007

On 4th September, 2007 Donald Tsang hosted a forum to consult university students from the mainland, Hong Kong and overseas on his upcoming policy address. If one reads between the lines of the CE’s speech and responses to questions from students, one could not help but come away with the impression that the administration is still trapped in its old mindset: “do not rock the boat”.

On the subject of Hong Kong’s gaping wealth gap and poverty, the CE started off in defensive mode, saying that such a challenge is universal in all developed economies, particularly in the renowned financial centres like London and New York. He then made it clear that it is not the government’s business to arbitrarily redistribute income. In other words, government should do nothing to prevent the rich from getting richer, but rather should make sure that the poor will not get poorer. My question is: if the rich and super-rich are forever getting larger and larger portions of the economic pie, what modicum of it, if any, will be left for the working class and the downtrodden in society?

According to government statistics, the average annual rate of change in the Real Wage Index between the years 2001 and 2006 is 0.1% per annum, whereas during the same period Hong Kong’s GDP per capita enjoyed a 5.1% per annum growth. The Real Wage Index covers workers at supervisory, technical, clerical, craftsman and operative levels and is inflation-adjusted. Doesn’t that huge gap between wage and economic growth tell us something that government may be too embarrassed to admit? Should the bar benders and social workers be blamed for wanting to share that spectacular economic growth, especially when already highly-paid civil servants have been allowed corresponding pay raises and shorter work weeks?

There is a Chinese adage that goes: “If you want to know what goes on in a person’s mind, you only have to listen to his spoken words.” (欲知心中事, 但聽口中言), From Tsang’s words, one might have a fairly good guess that the administration is not about to tackle the wealth gap, as Tsang indicated that redistribution of income is not an option, nor is it very serious about dealing with poverty, as Tsang kept evading the minimum wage issue at the forum. His pledge not to allow cross-generation poverty seems so empty.....

Tsang likes to compare Hong Kong with cities like New York and London. Let us compare the actions of Hong Kong and those of New York on their separate attempt to tackle the issue of poverty.

It took the Commission on Poverty, established in 2005, two whole years just to come up with a long-winded Report, which was released on 14th June, 2007. Other than talking over and over again about the meaning of poverty and classifying the poor into several categories like the unemployed, the working poor, children, youth and the elderly, the Report was short on delivering creative ways of solving the problem.

In the concluding passage of the Executive Summary, it says “The Commission believes that poverty issues are becoming increasingly complicated and can no longer be satisfactorily resolved by the efforts of any one sector alone. Joint efforts from the community, the Third sector, the private sector and across the government are required to search for more sustainable partnerships and innovative solutions.”

Lots of words on paper followed by more words and scant action over a span of two years.

In contrast, as described in this article by Reid Cramer of the New America Foundation, since announcing government’s initiatives to tackle poverty last December, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg has formed in March this year a public-private partnership with US$50 million in funds raised from a number of foundations for the purpose of launching some pilot programs. Bloomberg pledged US$150 million a year to the poverty project, with some of the required funds to be raised from the private sector. The money is earmarked for testing out innovative programs including a new conditional cash transfer (CCT) incentive program which would allow the unemployed to invest in their own future, replacing the traditional dole-out welfare aid system. It will also be used to set up a Center for Economic Opportunity, which is charged with R & D functions as well as program evaluation responsibility.

Words followed by money and action within a matter of months.

Who is the more sincere one here?

It looks like Hong Kong workers and grassroots only have themselves to rely on to initiate any changes to livelihood issues.

Monday, September 3, 2007

Does capitalism lead to democracy? Or vice versa? Or do they go hand in hand?

The Economist guest blogger, Chris Coyne, believes that capitalism tends to lead to democracy, as he says in his post:

"To reiterate the connection between capitalism and democracy, free markets tend to foster democracy because private property, which is central to any notion of capitalism, produces a sphere of autonomy that grants each individual certain liberties. Private property disperses power and shields each person from coercion. Further, well-defined property rights tend to encourage the emergence of private civil associations. As I discussed in an earlier post, these private associations provide individuals with an alternative form of governance where the state is ineffective or absent. A robust civil society fosters self-reliance and individual responsibility, characteristics necessary for any liberal democratic order."

However, he also points to the importance of having a set of game rules to deter unproductive activities like rent-seeking, corruption and crime:

"The sustainability and progress of economic, political and social liberties are outcomes of two opposing forces. On the one hand, there are “productive” activities, including wealth creation, the development of private associations and the protection of political liberties. On the other hand, there are “unproductive” activities, which include rent-seeking, corruption and crime. Unproductive activities undermine economic, political and social liberties. The ultimate outcome of these two forces is directly dependent on the rules of the game. To the extent that we agree that economic and political liberties are desirable ends, the task is to design rules that raise the relative cost of engaging in unproductive and predatory behaviors."

There are also interesting comments on his post. The debate goes on and on ....

Perhaps somewhere in that ongoing debate there lie some lessons that Hong Kong and China can learn.

Sunday, September 2, 2007

Ordinary Gweilo’s post about ludicrous translations of Chinese menus makes me want to rant on the poor standard of English in Hong Kong these days.

Before I do that, I just want to remark that good translation work depends very much on a good understanding of both Chinese and Western cultures and the ability to master both the Chinese and English language. In my opinion, the general standard of translation in the Mainland is below par is because the majority of ordinary Mainland Chinese (even the fairly well educated ones) are still very much strangers to Western culture and are unable to speak simple English, let alone master the language.

Those lucky enough to have received Western education overseas and good exposure to Western culture would usually end up working for multinational corporations either in Hong Kong or the Mainland, or stay and live abroad altogether, thus leaving the domestically educated, whose standard of English cannot be anything but sub-par, taking on less well paid jobs in government and public institutions. Therefore I am not surprised to hear that people working at places like the Beijing Tourism Bureau are not up to the task of producing good translations and their work often tends to be hilarious.

It is a good thing though that at least the authorities are aware of China’s English and translation skill deficiency in general and are taking steps to improve on it. Hopefully, the Olympics are going to bring about a general elevation in China’s standard of English and understanding of Western culture, amongst other things. Let us face it, China is still a developing nation which has yet to catch up with and learn from the English-speaking world in a lot of areas. Let us also be aware that English-speaking businessmen and professionals from the West are scrambling to learn the Chinese language because they want to learn from and about China. So there is no question of any loss of face for the Chinese trying to learn English and the Western culture. It is merely a two-way exchange that would enhance mutual understanding and respect.

Ironically, the development in Hong Kong seems to be running in reverse gear. Ever since the implementation of Tung Chee-Hwa’s ill-advised policy of teaching in the mother-tongue, the standard of English among secondary school and university students went from bad to worse. In recent years, there have been abundant reports that multinational firms are constantly complaining about the acute shortage of local staff with reasonably good English skills, both written and spoken. These go some way to show that that policy has done more harm than good.

It is simply paradoxical for Hong Kong to claim to be an international financial hub on the one hand, and on the other to have a dearth of suitably qualified staff whose basic skill sets should include good English skills.

Before over-zealous patriots start throwing stones at me for daring to promote the language of the hateful colonial gweilos, let us ponder for a moment on the pragmatic side of the issue. Using the words of my former boss, “It is only in the interests of Hong Kong people to speak and write good English. After all, English is the international language used in the business, finance, science, technology and medicine arenas. Being able to master the language is a prerequisite to a successful career or enterprise.”

It would really serve no purpose to use excuses such as nationalism, decolonization, respect for Chinese culture etc. etc. to deprive Hong Kong people of their right to properly learn to master the English language, spoken and written, which has more or less been hampered by the teaching in the mother-tongue program.

My nephew is one of the victims of the society slighting the learning and usage of the English language, made even worse by that program, in the days following the handover. His parents sent him to Vancouver to continue schooling here last year because of total frustration with Hong Kong’s education system. At grade 10 (equivalent to Form 4 in Hong Kong), his English standard was found to be far below that required for that grade and as a result he had to take extra-curricular English lessons. After struggling for a year, he made some progress and got just passing grades in English at his final exams. If he can’t catch up with his classmates in his grade 11 and grade 12 years, he will not stand a chance of reaching pre-university standard of English and will possibly be declined university entry because of it.

I can now understand why some parents in Hong Kong are willing to fork out a fortune to try to get their children into English-speaking international schools.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

In this article, Frank Lin tells us about the lack of compassion of America’s middle class and wealthy for those left to destitution in the stratum of abject poverty.

Self interest and profit motive, the cornerstone of capitalism, while responsible for showering enviable wealth upon the American people in the last century, has not only brought about an unbridgeable chasm between the rich and the poor, but has also hardened the hearts of the more privileged.

Capitalism has always condoned merciless competition and survival of the fittest, and people embracing this conceptual system of economic organization have always been well aware of the inevitable outcome of inequalities under such a system. But even the staunchest of supporters would admit that whoever wins under this system does so because of a confluence of good skill, hard work and good luck. Men are hardly equal at birth, much less the shares of luck that they are destined to enjoy after birth.

The irony of capitalism is that while it rewards those hard-working risk-takers on the grounds that an individual is the rightful owner of the fruits of his labor (and a good deal of luck), it also abets inequalities in incomes and hence social stratification of individuals, which defeats the ideal of individual liberty that it promises.

Lin’s article reminds me of this observation by Paul Bowles, author of a new book titled “Capitalism”:-

“It is true that in responding to consumers’ material wants, wherever they come from, for the majority of the population in most countries, the capitalist system performs this function reasonably well, and particularly well for wealthy individuals with trivial desires. However, it fails miserably to fill the needs of those who have no demand because they have no income. The rise of homelessness on the streets of every Western city in the past 30 years and the permanence of food banks demonstrate that capitalism is failing to meet many people’s daily wants even in relatively rich societies.”

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

One of the metal workers who went on strike in the last couple of weeks handed a Local Action member three poems, which have been posted by Chu Hoi Dick on the InmediaHK website.

The first one of the three poems is reconstructed from a famous lyrical poem called Man Jiang Hong (滿 江 紅) written by Yue Fei (岳 飛), who was a patriotic general of the Southern Song Dynasty, when he was 30 years old. The other two poems are also reconstructions of classical poems by famous poets. I find the first one to be the best of the three and have translated it below. Beneath my translation is a translation found on Wikipedia of the original poem for easy comparison.

My Translation of Mr. Xin’s Poem:

“My wrath is on government-business collusion,As we laborers toil through sweltering heat and fierce rainstorms.Our deeds are done on dusty sites and we often work right into the night.Vile businessmen don’t have a conscience; they are beasts whose aim is to exploit.Our humiliation of a decade is still not vindicated.The pain of laborers will never be soothed.Let us keep up the strike until we have our way.Despite hunger and insult, we swear we will make businessmen pay.Let us begin anew to recover our dignity, before we bundle rods.”

Wikipedia Translation of the Original Poem:

“My wrath bristles through my helmet, the rain stops as I stand by the rail.I look up towards the sky and let loose a passionate roar.At age thirty my deeds are nothing but dust, my journey has taken me over eight thousand li (里 – about ½ a kilometer).So do not sit by idly, for young men will grow old in regret.The humiliation of Jing Kang still lingers.When will the pain of his subjects ever end?Let us ride our chariots through the Helan Pass.There we shall feast and drink barbarian flesh and blood.Let us begin anew to recover our old empire, before paying tribute to the Emperor.”

Sunday, August 26, 2007

“I’m not sure about choosing Europe – it is expensive and it seems only older people like to travel to Europe…” I mumbled to myself as I was flipping through some travel brochures and pamphlets.

“Nonsense, Alice. Young English people love to travel through Europe with their knapsacks. If you decide to take a long vacation, there’s no place better,” came my boss’s kindly rebuff. “I’m sure you’ll love it. Besides, it will take your mind off things for a while,” he gently coaxed me.

The sadness and loneliness that had taken me hostage for months before making this travel decision was just overwhelming. I felt that if I didn’t take a break then, I would just collapse under the weight of depression. My mother, after struggling hopelessly for six months to fight lung cancer, had passed away the previous fall. At the time, it was the beginning of summer and the idea of an escapade to Europe was just so tempting.

The next day I made all the necessary bookings and by mid-July, I was all set to go.

The first stop was London. Oh, London, the snobbish city with its snobbish taxi-drivers! My first impression of the city had already been tarnished at the Gatwick airport immigration checkpoint before I had the chance to experience the rudeness of London taxi-drivers. I was quite put off by the immigration officer's racist attitude when he "interrogated" me (I can’t remember the details) for 15 minutes! That bad experience may well be the reason why I haven’t been to the place again for more than 30 years!

The two days that I spent in this proud city were used on the Tower of London, museums, bookstores, parks, department stores and candy shops. The only thing that impressed me was the sumptuous breakfast tastefully served at the hotel (can’t remember the hotel name now). But even that was spoiled by stone-faced waiters who had eyebrows on their foreheads.

On Day 3, I boarded the cross-channel ferry bound for Calais, France, with a tour group of about twenty people, most of who came from England and Scotland. From Calais, we were to tour four countries by coach: Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and France.

As there were only three young people (including me) in the group, David, a Scot who ran his family business in Cumbria, M (I can’t remember his name), a Pakistani accountant, and I quickly became acquainted with each other. Throughout the rest of the journey, the three of us always stuck together in our ventures. We chatted, sang, joked and played together – none of us had a moment of dullness ever since we met.

One of the earlier stops was made at Rudesheim, Germany. One evening, the three of us left the group after dinner and sneaked out to a bar strip that was near the River Rhine. It was filled with young people hanging out and making merry and the place oozed with vivacity. The image of us sitting on the patio of a bar by the moonlit river, caressed by a gentle fragrant breeze while having ice cold white wine and lemon sherbet, has never left my memory.

The trip continued smoothly until we got to Interlaken, Switzerland, where I had my first dose of bad luck. One day, as we sat in front of the calm rippleless lake that mirrored an azure sky and told each other ghost stories, M suggested that we race each other to a big tree about 50 yards from where we were sitting. This we did and I ended up last, breathless, and the two young men started poking fun at me. After that, we took a long walk in the woods around the lake until dinner time.

By the time we headed back to the hotel that evening, I was dead tired. As I was packing up stuff for the excursion to the Jungfrau mountain planned for the next day, I discovered to my aghast that I had lost my purse containing all the cash that I was carrying! That cash was meant to pay for the excursion. Although I still had a traveller’s cheque with me, that was supposed to pay for my expenses during my intended one-week stay in Paris, which was the last stop of this trip. How could I be so careless - I must have dropped the purse while I was running in that race! But it didn’t help to feel guilty now – I had to face the music. There was no other choice but to withdraw from the excursion.

When I announced the bad news to my two friends the next morning, they tried to console me and offered to search the coach seats for my purse, which search, as expected, resulted in nothing. I was nevertheless grateful for their gesture. David even offered to pay the excursion for me, but I told him that I couldn’t accept his money. I decided to stay behind and explore the town on my own that day.

On the 12th day, we arrived at Paris, the city of my dreams. I had booked a bed-and-breakfast room in Saint Germain for a week, as I planned to leave the tour group at this last stop and continue my stay in Paris. After two days of venturing around famous landmarks and enjoying sidewalk café espresso, I said goodbye to David, M and the tour group.

Two days after the farewell, the second mishap descended on me. This time, I was conned by a tourist photographer at the plaza outside Louvre museum. Now in hindsight, I was probably a targeted prey as I was wandering about all alone and looking quite gullible. The con man came up to me and asked if I would like a photo taken. I was naïve enough to think that it would probably not cost too much to have a photo taken and so I agreed. After he had taken the photo of me, he produced a set of five prints and asked me to pay a total of 50 francs. It was a lot of money (my b&b room only cost me 25 francs a night)! I had never asked for five prints! What a jerk! Mad though I was, I dared not refuse to pay. And my French wasn’t fluent enough to argue with him!

My memory of Paris has been discolored by the years like a faded photograph. But my stay was not spoiled by that little episode. The lovely tree-lined Seine river and its tranquil ambience, the glass boats, the quiet winding cobblestone streets, the ornate churches, the chic boutiques, the quaint patisseries, the morning strollers carrying their baguettes, the lonesome youth in the park who engaged me in casual conversation in a lazy afternoon, the loquacious old man who talked incessantly about politics which I didn’t understand, the warm smile on the face of the kind lady who served me breakfast at the guest house, the self-absorbed painters on Montmartre……

My trip to Europe would have meant nothing to me in all these years without my vivid memories of the places, the people, the trivialities and the interaction between myself and the people I met. Those images, although long buried under the tide of my subsequent years of living, will always occupy a special niche in my heart.

That thought brings me back to the reality in Hong Kong. The authorities can do all they want to demolish buildings, piers, markets, neighborhoods and even livelihoods in Hong Kong. But thank god they can neither touch our memories nor the sentiments these memories invoke, be they memories of her historic places, graceful architectures, people or happenings. Memories are the inviolable private property of those who care to remember. Our present and our future are built on our past.

Friday, August 24, 2007

In Ordinary Gweilo’s post “Out through the Window”, he says: “In Hong Kong (and large parts of China) that means designing buildings that can be kept cool in the summer without excessive use of air-conditioning. It's not happening, is it? Developers prefer to throw up apartments with thin walls and hardly any insulation. Even if you are sceptical about global warming, surely it has to be a good thing to be cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter without having to pay a small fortune to CLP or HK Electric?”

Another blogger Daai Tou Laam has a post “Government Listens to Elite, Masses Can Suck on a Tailpipe” where he delivers a news release about the Town Planning Board’s rejection of an application by the environmental group, Green Sense, to reduce the density of a West Kowloon site and to include a 10-meter wind corridor in the proposed development. The rejection apparently came through because of objections from the developer and owner of the site, Sun Hung Kai Properties, on grounds that the application infringes on their private property right and could threaten investor confidence.

Then there was Li Ka Shing’s comment on TV that if the density of a development site were reduced, it would adversely impact government’s treasury as well as citizens’ income.

Here are some observations:

Thin walls without any insulation means less quantities of concrete and would be a plus on cost-savings for developers. Air-conditioning charges would be the homeowners’ or tenants’ liability once the built apartments are sold, and thus are not the developers’ concern.

Lower density eats right into developers’ profits and is and must remain a taboo. Developers would naturally not want to comply with any of the environmentalists’ requests that would cost them more money, especially if market conditions do not allow them to pass on the additional cost to consumers.

Li was not wrong in pointing out that government would also stand to lose in terms of land revenue as lower density on sites would mean lower land premium receipts for government.

Can it be any clearer that from the developers’ standpoint, cost and profit concerns always trump environment concerns?

On the other hand, if there are no specific environmental regulations either in the building code or in the lease conditions, then a developer does not have any legal responsibility to comply. By the same token, based on the concept of the rule of law, government is also contractually obliged to let a developer build to whatever density ratio that is written in the Conditions of Sale (i.e. lease conditions) of a site and under current building and planning regulations once that site is sold (as in the above case).

All in all, the above situation and incidence suggest there is an urgent need for a revamp, with public input, of existing land development policy, building and planning regulations in light of the growing social demand for greater efforts on environmental protection and more livable neighborhoods. It may also be time for government to review the sustainability of a land revenue-reliant fiscal structure.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

People may have missed the key issue in the Star Ferry and Queen’s Pier movement if they think that it is just about retaining the piers as two pieces of heritage structure. It’s much more than that, as Local Action member 周 思 中 explains in his article.

Below is my short translation of the key points in the article:-

“The Star Ferry and Queen’s Pier movement has always been based on four fundamental principles:-

(1) The citizens’ user right and participating right relating to public open spaces;(2) Democratization of the city planning process;(3) Preservation of Hong Kong’s historical spaces and structures;(4) Resolving issues relating to Hong Kong’s history, identity and decolonization.

Starting from the 1950s, the public open spaces surrounding Star Ferry, Queen’s Pier and City Hall have always been the historic venue witnessing Hong Kong people’s strife to develop and establish their own citizenry character with dignity and self-respect.

According to information on hand, civic movements that occurred in these public open spaces range from the 1965 residents’ protest against tax hikes, rent hikes and price hikes, to the 1966 蘇 守 忠 's anti-Star Ferry fare increase hunger strike, to the early 1970s’ 保 釣 and Chinese language movement. Apart from hosting these incidences, the spaces also serve as the Philippine domestic helpers’ weekend “refuge” in a consumerist city. All these scenes are evidence that Hong Kong people understand and know how to exercise their civic rights in this city. The colonial government and the Royal Hong Kong Police Force can and may have good reason to disregard this piece of history. But as Hong Kong citizens, particularly now that colonial governance is ten years away from us, can we ignore it? Can those experts in history ignore it?

The history of civic protests deeply impacts Hong Kong’s social progress, be it in the arena of economy, religion, education or healthcare, and cannot possibly be a question that could be answered with a simple yes or no. Not only does Hong Kong’s heritage policy and heritage administration structure need to be changed, the more important thing is to discuss and treat with care the conceptual question of what kind of historic preservation is needed, given the current historical stage Hong Kong is in.”

I found this video on Sham-Shui-Po Boy’s website, which is a good speech by a HKU professor during the Queen’s Pier movement. In case you missed it, here it is:-

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About Me

Always fascinated with iconic but unsung females in Chinese history and legends, I cherish a dream of bringing them to the page. Chinese history and poetry, Jin Yong novels, English, French and Russian classics have colored my life and imagination.